{"id":22082,"date":"2023-01-10T17:20:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dc26fd8f-7042-4cb0-8179-eb0e6f31c71912"},"modified":"2023-01-10T17:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T17:20:52","slug":"nasa-is-funding-ideas-for-a-titan-seaplane-and-faster-deep-space-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/nasa-is-funding-ideas-for-a-titan-seaplane-and-faster-deep-space-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA is funding ideas for a Titan seaplane and faster deep space travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
NASA is still willing to fund unusual concepts<\/span> in its bid to advance space exploration. The agency is handing out<\/span> $175,000 initial study grants to 14 projects that could be useful for missions in and beyond the Solar System. The highlight may be TitanAir<\/span>, a seaplane from Planet Enterprises’ Quinn Morley that could both fly through the nitrogen-and-methane atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan<\/span> and sail its oceans. The “flying boat” would collect methane and complex organic material for study by sucking it in through a porous leading edge.<\/p>\n A project from UCLA’s Artur Davoyan, meanwhile, could speed up missions to the outer edge of the Solar System and even interstellar space. His design<\/span> (shown at middle) would propel spacecraft by producing a “pellet-beam” of microscopic particles travelling at very high speed (over 74 miles per second) using laser blasts. The concept could dramatically shorten the time it takes to explore deep space. Where Voyager 1 took 35 years to reach interstellar space<\/span> (the heliopause, roughly 123AU from the Sun), a one-ton spacecraft could reach 100AU in just three years. It could travel 500AU in 15 years.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n